#RolandMartinUnfiltered - 2024 HOPE Global Forums, Fmr. White Marine Acquitted of Black Homeless Man, Clyburn & Trump Pardon

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

12.9.2024 ##RolandMartinUnfiltered: 2024 HOPE Global Forums, Fmr. White Marine Acquitted of Black Homeless Man, Clyburn & Trump Pardon Live from the Hope Global Forums in Atlanta. This year's theme is "The Future."  Also, on tonight's show, a Manhattan jury acquitted Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on Monday caused quite a reaction on social media.  We'll talk to the attorney representing Neely's family about this miscarriage of justice.  Jay Z gets added to a sexual assault civil lawsuit.  He says it's an extortion attempt.  South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn wants President Joe Biden to pardon 45.  I have some thoughts about that foolishness.   The DOJ found another police department that demonstrated a pattern of civil rights violations.  #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (link) and Risks (link) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Blackstar Network is here. Oh, no punch. I'm real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be scared.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? Thank you. Folks, today's Monday, December 9th, 2024, coming up on Roller Mark Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. We are here live at the 2024 Operation Hope Global Hope Forums. And of course, we'll be taking a live feed of the beginning of the conference. It started today. And so we'll go live there in just a moment. Also, a big decision out of New York. A jury found a white former

Marine not guilty of killing a black man on a subway. We'll be joined by the family's attorney to discuss what took place today in New York. Jay-Z gets hit with a sexual assault lawsuit. He fires back, says the lawyer representing this woman is trying to extort him. Also, South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn says that if President Biden chose to pardon Donald Trump, he would support that. I'm going to tell you why that is an awful, awful idea. That and more. It's time to bring the funk on Rolling Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go.

He's got whatever the piss he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling, best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling, yeah It's Uncle Roro, y'all

Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martinall. Yeah, yeah. It's Rollin' Martin. Yeah, yeah. Rollin' with Rollin' now. Yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's Rollin' Martin. Yeah.

Martin. Martel Martel former Marine Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide and the death of Jordan Neely. That took place on a New York City subway last year. Penny also faced a more serious second-degree manslaughter charge, but Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed that charge on Friday at the request of prosecutors that the jurors twice told the court they could not come to a verdict on the count. After the not guilty verdict was read, there was applause in the courtroom. Neely's father, who was present for the verdict, was escorted out of the courtroom after an audible outburst of expletives. The gentleman now is Dante Mills, an attorney representing Jordan Neely's family.

Dante, glad to have you here in Roland Martin Unfiltered. I mean, this is obviously not the decision the Neely family wanted in this particular case. It had, in many ways, political and racial undertones, where you had many MAGA folks who were supportive of Daniel Penny. And then you had others who said this is an example of a white man killing a black man and getting away with murder after choking him for five and a half minutes on a New York City subway. Roland, thanks for having me on. And it was important for me to have this conversation with you. It may not be the best background.

We're in motion. It's a lot going on today with the family. But I wanted to have this conversation with you to talk to our people and let us know that we have to be there for each other. I think this is proof, and this is proof that we can't rely on anyone else, right? We have to step up for ourselves. Jordan was in a lot of pain. He had some loneliness and issues that he was dealing with. And he wasn't heard in that moment on the train when he came on asking for food. And he wasn't heard in his courtroom where the jury said that Daniel Penny, who choked him to death, was not responsible for it. And it should be noted that we're not saying if Jordan came on making threats and Daniel Penny decided to act. We didn't question that. Where we questioned it is he choked him for over six minutes, where after 30 seconds, this entire incident was over. And after two minutes, three minutes, people are coming saying, let him go. Right. You're going to kill him. It's over. I have his hands. You can let his neck go. And Daniel continued to hold his neck until he had no life in his body. And when he had no life in his body, he continued to hold his neck for another 52 seconds.

That's what we're saying he should be held responsible for. And it doesn't matter who you are. White, black, homeless, have mental issues or dealing with mental trauma. No matter what it is and who you are, you are valuable and you deserve to be heard and your life matters. And that's what we're advocating for. And we expect it from the jury. Well, on that particular point there, that's what so many others said that, you know, detaining him is one thing, 30, 45 seconds, but for five and a half minutes, that is a very, very long time. And when you say he did not, you know, get his just due here, clearly the family has to be

devastated that their loved one was killed as a result of this action and Daniel Penny gets to walk free. Devastating. I mean, it's a sadness. It's a hurt. It's a disappointment in the system that we thought would come through in this regard, but it didn't. But I'm telling you right now, our challenge, we need a call to action. Our call to action is for everyone out there to listen, right? When you see someone that's hungry, give them something to eat. If you see someone cold, maybe a coat, a blanket, ask someone, are they okay? That's what we need to do for each other. And that will prevent this situation from happening again. That's our call to action. We got to do something with this hurt that we continue to feel over and over again. This disappointment that we feel over and over again, my call to action to everyone is to stand up and be there for each other and make life a little bit easier. We all have problems, right? But just because you do,

just because you may be homeless or you may have a mental health issue or a crisis that you go through does not mean you don't have value. We need to see each other. We need to hear each other. We need to be there for each other. And that's how we can avoid these situations moving forward. One of these right-wing radio hosts, Buck Sexton, put out what I consider to be a shameful, despicable tweet. He said, Daniel Penney not guilty, fantastic news, a just verdict, and a possible turning point for criminal justice in New York City. He says, but vigilance needed in the days ahead as the street mobs are unhappy, stay frosty New Yorkers. These are people who literally have no problem with street justice.

And they applauded this. They said, oh, this is the right decision, things along those lines. You have individuals like this who they want, they got no problem with seeing someone being attacked because they say, well, you know, this person was threatening people, causing a disturbance. And so this sort of reminds me of Bernard Goz, if you will, this vigilante action. Well, what it does is it shows there's this sense of I'm more important than you. How dare you come into my space and make me uncomfortable? How dare you come into my space and raise your voice or cause a scene that allows me to do whatever I want because I'm more important than you?

And I reject that. I don't care about that notion. I don't think it's correct. I think we are all the same. And that's what has to be shown. And I was hoping would be shown with this verdict that Daniel Penny, Jordan Neely are the same because they are. But you get that sense that people think they are better. So how dare someone interrupt their life, even to come in and start stating out, starting out saying, I'm hungry. That's the first thing Jordan said when he got on that train and never once did Daniel Penny offer him anything. He came from behind him when Jordan didn't touch anybody, put him in a chokehold and choked him until he had no

life in his body. And now he gets to walk away from that in a criminal sense. But we will hold him responsible in a civil sense. I'm telling you we will, because we can't let that happen. So the family's definitely proceeding with a civil lawsuit? Absolutely. We filed that civil lawsuit last week. Not immediately. We wanted the evidence to come out. We wanted to hear what their defense was going to be. Maybe there was a reason Daniel thought he had to choke him until he died. Once we saw all of that evidence and heard the people come into court saying, we told you to let him go. We said, let him go. You're going to kill him. And he continued to choke him anyway. That's when we filed that lawsuit after all that evidence came out.

And we're absolutely certain we saw a jury struggle with that lawsuit, after all that evidence came out. And we are absolutely certain. We saw a jury struggle with manslaughter, which means that he knew, Daniel Penny knew, that he would kill Jordan if he continued that chokehold. We saw the jury struggle with that. They didn't know what to do. They were hung on that. That made it clear to us that in a civil case, where it's a lower burden, we can get that victory. And we want that family to feel that, to feel that they are listened to, that they are heard, and that there's justice at the end of this because that's what they deserve. All right, Dante Mills, we certainly appreciate you joining us here on Roller Mark On A Filter. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

Folks, the mother of Eric Garner and Jordan Neely's father spoke outside of the courthouse after the verdict. This is what they had to say. I miss my son. My son didn't have to go through this. I didn't have to go through this either. It hurts. Really, really hurts. What are we going to do people? What's going to happen to us now? I had enough of this. This is getting real.

Here we stand once again in front of this injustice. I stood here 10 years ago because they did not give justice to my son with the chokehold. I fought hard to get the anti-chokehold bill passed, which did pass. But it should not only be for police officers, it should be for civilians also. No one deserves to be choked to death. It should not only be for police officers, it should be for civilians also. No one deserves to be choked to death.

And you know we're in that courtroom and people are cheering for the verdict. They made the loudest noise, the judge did nothing. But when his father spoke out, they put him out the courtroom. Is that justice or what? We can't allow this to keep going on. We have to fight this system. That's what I had to do. I had to fight to get the little justice that I got.

I got one police officer fired. There's more that need to be fired. But I tell this family, do not give up. Because that's what they want you to do. They want to discourage you. Just like they tried to discourage me. But 10 years later, I'm still fighting. The Manhattan Days office released this statement.

They said, as with every case, we follow the facts and the evidence from beginning to end. A grand jury voted to indict, and the office carefully presented this case to a trial jury. Over the course of the trial, we introduced... I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. News, medical records, videos, body cam footage, and testimony from over 30 witnesses, including from the city's office of the chief medical examiner.

The jury carefully deliberated for four days. and testimony from over 30 witnesses, including from the city's office of the chief medical examiner. The jury carefully deliberated for four days. They requested readbacks of testimony and asked for video footage to rewatch, as well as written definitions of the law. Their lengthy deliberation and the totality of the facts and the evidence underscored why this case was put in front of a jury of Mr. Penny's peers. The jury has now spoken at the Manhattan DA's office. We deeply respect the jury process. We respect their verdict. Unfortunately, over the duration of this trial, talented career prosecutors and their family members were besieged with hate and threats

on social media, by phone and over email. Simply put, this is unacceptable and everyone, no matter your opinion on this case, should condemn it. These are prosecutors who have dedicated decades of their lives to public service and to the safety of Manhattan. I'm grateful to them, as well as to the NYPD, for their hard work and commitment on not only this matter, but for all they do on behalf of New Yorkers. I also want to thank Judge Wiley for presiding over this case. Finally, I want to thank members of the jury who took time out of their lives to diligently evaluate the evidence. Jordan's father, Andre Zachary, filed a civil lawsuit, as we said, against Penny for negligent contact, assault battery that led to Neely's death. And so we will be following this up to see exactly what happens next. Folks, got to go to a break. We'll

be right back right here on Rolling Mark Unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Hi, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase. Fanbase is a free-to-download, free-to-use, next-generation social media platform that allows anyone to have followers and subscribers on the same page. Fanbase was built through investment dollars from equity crowdfunding from the JOBS Act. People just like you help build Fanbase, and we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million in a Regulation 8 crowdfund on StartEngine. We've already crossed $2.1 million,

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now streaming on the Blackstar Network. I had been trying to get a record deal for a long time. You know, when I finally got signed to the Motown record label in 2003, I was 34, 35 years old. And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to get record deals the traditional way you know you record your demo you record your music and you send it you know to the record labels or maybe somebody a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for you know the record label and uh and really chemistry was that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business how long have you been trying

i've been trying since i was a teenager. Wow. And, you know, and I'm grateful that it didn't, I'm grateful that it happened when it happened because I wasn't prepared, you know, as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. Now that Roland Martin is willing to give me the blueprint. Hey, Saras. I need to go to Tyler Perry and get another blueprint because I need some green money. The only way I can do what I'm doing, I need to make some money. So you'll see me working with Roland. Matter of fact, it's the Roland

Martin and Sheryl Lundgren show. Well, should it be the Sheryl Lundgren show and the Roland Martin show? Well, whatever show it's going to now, Dr. Amakongo Dabinga, Senior Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service, American University, Dr. Nola Haynes, Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service. Joining us out of D.C., Cameron Trimble, CEO, Hip Politics Media, former White House Senior Advisor. Glad to have all three of you here. I'm a Congoan. When you look at this particular trial here, as I said to the attorney, you had political

sides here. You had, frankly, white MAGA folks who were backing Daniel Penny. You saw even Phil Mickelson, the golfer, post a comment thanking Daniel Penny for his actions. This is a man who choked this homeless black man for five and a half minutes, and these people are considering him to be some type of happy warrior who defended people when it didn't have to last that long.

What I will say to that, really, Roland, is welcome back to the Trump era, right, where we just saw, we just see depravity and ignorance and no shame or regard for human life that doesn't look like them. I'm very interested to see what this man is going to do now that he's set free. I know the civil charges are coming, but I mean, he's a Fox commentator, you know, other types of jobs and the like. The fact that to hear Eric Garner's mother talking about the fact that, and the attorney mentioned it as well, the bursting, the applause. I mean, I think any one of us in this room right now, even if we had somebody in our family who was on trial for something like this, we would have enough dignity to know that on the other side is a life lost of another family member and not to burst out into cheers and applause and to celebrate it like that.

The aspect of like basic human dignity and kindness is gone. And this is being celebrated in places. I mean, I'm seeing everybody talk about that UnitedHealthcare person who was shot and how, oh, my gosh, I can't believe people are celebrating this. We are used to that in our community. We're used to seeing people get off, used to seeing people get, you know, book deals and TV deals and people celebrating them in every way, shape or form. And we're going to see more of this now that we got this MAGA, quote, unquote, leadership in our country. I'm so glad that you're here, what you're doing. I'm so glad the attorney came on to give voice to this family. And like Eric Garner's mom said, what are we going to do?

Because just because they don't have dignity, just because they don't have basic respect for human decency, it doesn't mean that we can't demand it. And so we have to continue to uplift our stories and uplift our communities because they're going to not only refuse to do it, but they're going to be callous and ignorant and disrespectful when they do choose to talk about it. And really what this does, Noah, again, you have these people who are emboldened and they believe that this vigilante action, this is what should be happening. And don't be surprised if we see more of this. We're definitely going to see more of this, Roland, unfortunately.

Earlier today, I watched his father's words and he just said how hurt he was over and over. And you just heard it. You just heard it in his voice, in his spirit. And here we are again.

And here we are again in more of a hostile situation than we were in 2016. It's very clear to me that these people want civil war. It is very clear to me at this point. I was hesitant to go there before. I said that I needed more evidence. But I think we're at that point where black people, we just want to live our lives.

We genuinely just want to live our lives. But we keep over and over and over. The scab just keeps getting picked, picked away, picked, picked away, picked away and trying to nudge us into a position that none of us want to be in. But these people want to fight. They want war. Cameron, again, when you have the likes of Donald Trump and MAGA, they approve of this. And listen, whether it's a black homeless man, whether it's migrants, their attitude is, guess what? You can attack them with impunity and they should not be prosecuted as a result. Roland, this has been one of the saddest cases and just another what I hope is not to come in a Trump presidency that things like this can kind of go on under the radar. I'm glad we're putting a huge light on this. But the the online vitriol around this and the polarization around this around this incident is actually kind of sickening.

We've been tracking and tracking this case online for a while. And I think the real hope here is that justice is ultimately served. But it was just kind of heart-wrenching to be able to see the parents' reactions and to be able to see Eric Garner's mother there as well. Well, again, I just firmly believe that we're going to see more of this and it's going to be happening over and over and over again. So black people, prepare for a difficult four years. I'm telling you right now, prepare for a difficult four years. I'm telling you right now, prepare for a difficult four years.

I cannot overestimate this. And I know I'm a congressman of people who are saying, well, listen, I'm not a crazy, deranged, homeless man attacking people. But I'm telling you right now, Donald Trump, who is a massive liar, has no problem at all approving of these things. And I'm telling you, these people, his supporters, they have no problem with these type of attacks. We had better be on guard over the next four years. And you can forget any type of assistance from a Trump-Vance Department of Justice? Look, I ran into Daryl Jones today at a Kunta Kinte Alex Haley Memorial celebration, and this is a brother with the Transformative Justice Coalition.

He told me tomorrow he's going to Georgia to support the family of Ahmaud Arbery because they're bringing that original attorney up who let those killers and those murderers skate, and her trial is getting ready to start. So when you talk about it's just, oh, that guy was just a homeless guy, this could happen to anybody. Montarey just running through the neighborhood. And so we can go down case after case after case. And of course, with Eric Garner, whose mom was there. And we have to be mindful of them being emboldened. Look, you got a man who over the weekend, Trump reminded people he's going to pardon insurrectionists. We also have to be mindful, Roland, that with this mass deportation sweep that they're going to, the Texas governors, they're going to be deputizing regular people to go out and get folks. And again, like I said two weeks ago on your show, if they try to round up financially for what's coming because they are not playing. And as Nola said, some people just weren't sure, so on and so forth. Dr. Maya Angelou said, people show you who we are, believe them.

If we don't believe it now, we have to believe now and get prepared. We're going to be too late. Nobody's coming for us but us. We got to handle ourselves. Absolutely. And again, Nola, I can't overstate this. And when I say you can forget a Department of Justice, it's not going to happen. And you have law enforcement. They are going to be very much, you know, pro MAGA, pro Trump. And look, if you think they're going to be sitting and caring about us, that ain't going to happen. Absolutely. And they learned the first time around. So those good civil servants who were protecting behind the lines, they've learned this time. Just today, I was having a conversation with a lot of people about the list, the running list diversity, trying to equalize the system to have more seats at the table. And they are going to target these people. They are going to drain them

of resources through the court system just for equality. So you're absolutely, you're right, Roland. I mean, you know, like I said, they've learned this time. So they are going to tweeze out any weeds that they see are impediments. And unfortunately, you know, some of those weeds look like everybody here tonight, right? We are a threat to a lot of these folks. And the problem is when Black folks right now, that is not an easy thing for us to contend with. We just want to live our lives. I'm going to keep saying that over and over. We don't have any hostility or any angst against anyone, but people keep coming for us. So we have to we have to ask ourselves, what are we willing to do? do. Absolutely, absolutely. And Cameron, when we say

ain't nobody coming for us but us to rescue us, that's going to be the case. And again, this nation has decided that this type of thug vigilantism, they're fine with it. They're good with it. And

again, we saw what happened with Bernard Goetz with the shooting in the 1980s. This very reminiscent. And I'm telling you, folks should brace themselves for more stories like this. Yes. And I really the thing that gives me pause in Americans and folks to really be concerned with, is what Trump may look to undo and unwind through executive order. In 2022, President Biden signed what was then a historic executive order to limit, at least at the federal level, no choking, ban on the no-knock warrants, even banning the transfer of military equipment to local police departments. As we've seen over the last 20 or 30 years, our police departments become more and more militarized.

And it makes me fearful that if that's something Trump undoes, as he said, he wants to give police full immunity and things of that nature. If even at the federal level, we can't show an example of chokeholds being illegal and kind of overstepping the boundary, the no-not-warrant, some of these different things. As you mentioned, we won't be able to seek real justice in what these next four years, or hopefully only four years, of Department of Justice looks like, because how can we expect our citizens to do something that, even at federal level our police are deeming or potentially could deem okay? Because those chokeholds can still happen at a local and a state and a local level, but I'm fearful that they may even undo that even at the federal level.

Folks, hold tight one second. We come back. We're going to go live. Let's take a live look at the room here at the Global Hope Forums. This evening program is about to get underway. And so we are carrying that on a separate live stream on the Black Star Network. We're also going to be of course dipping in to carry

some of that on the show. And so that's one of the things that we are looking at. And so we come back. We're also going to be talking about police capturing the man who they believe shot and killed a health care executive in New York City. Also, we'll be talking about Congressman Jim Clyburn saying that he would support President Biden if he decided to part with Donald Trump.

I'm going to tell you why that's an absolutely awful idea. That and more right here on Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget to support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. You can join via cash app by using the Stripe QR code. So simply use this QR code to give you a cash app. You can also send your check of money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. PayPal's R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo's R. M. Unfiltered. Zelle. Rollin' at RollinSMartin.com. Rollin' at RollinMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back.

What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform. It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly to rule their community through the jobs ad. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. I had been trying to get a record deal for a long time. You know, when I finally got signed to the Motown record label in 2003, I was 34, 35 years old.

And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to the record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to the record labels, or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend, knows somebody that works for, you know, the record label. And really, chemistry was, that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying?

I've been trying since I was a teenager. Wow. And, you know, and I'm grateful that it didn't, I'm grateful that it happened when it happened. Because I wasn't prepared, you know, as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Franklin.

I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let me hear you. Thank you, Shana, Emily, everybody, Andre. Thank you all for your support. And I know I probably don't even need to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. Is Purple Rain here? The truth? support and I know I probably don't even need to say this but I'm gonna say it anyway it's purple rain here that's right that's what I'm talking about Truist is in the house absolutely and I know we have first horizon in the house Keith and Beth that's right yeah we have Keith and Beth, that's right We have Keith and Beth Ardon and Beth Trotter and the team Been with us from day one, 30 locations around the U.S.

Very happy to have them here And I know the stagecoach is here as well as Fargo in the house That's right, I see the stagecoach I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is

Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st,

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch.

What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Coach over there. See you, Greg. See you, team. See you, Michael. That's right. See you, Darlene. That's right. Give them all a great round of applause because, again, without their support and not only their support for these events, but supporting the programs of what we're doing. We have over 300 locations with 300 coaches doing this work around the United States. And again, it's thanks to those types of partners that are allowing us to be able to do that. So now we got a packed show for you today as the kickoff. And so we're going to get this show on the road. And as you know, the theme of this year is the future.

And nothing symbolizes that more than technology and artificial intelligence. So to open our conversation on the future in AI, we have some of the great leaders in the world that are going to be with you and with us next. And so I'm so excited to introduce them. And so first I want to bring up Angel Cabrera, who's the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Come on out, Angel. Give Angel a round of applause. He's here. He's here. Trust me. He's here. Let's give him a round of applause. We have Sarah Fryer, who's the chief financial officer for OpenAI. Give her a round of applause. We have Sarah Fryer, who's the chief financial officer for OpenAI. Give her a round

of applause. We have Cheryl Doohan, executive vice president for Globe Brand Strategy and Innovation. Give her a round of applause. And we also have the Honorable Robert Silvers, who's the undersecretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Chair of the U.S. Cyber Safety Review Board. Give him a round of applause. Gave a great presentation at our board meeting today. And last but not least, we have our moderator, Devin Banerjee, who's the Senior Managing Editor and Head of News Growth at LinkedIn. Give this panel and this group a round of applause. Over to you, Devin. Thank you so much, Lance. Congratulations to you and Kevin and John and the whole Operation Hope

team on 10 years of this wonderful forum. It's so good to be back. What a beautiful new venue. And I hope all of you have enjoyed today's session so far. And there's a lot more to come. And as Lance said, the theme of this year's Global Forum is the future. And there is no better topic to harness that theme than the discussion we're about to have for the next 30 to 40 minutes. Let me introduce our panelists once more in a little bit more detail so you get a sense of the depth and breadth of experience and expertise we have with us today. To my far right is Angel Cabrera, president of Georgia Tech. A lot of supporters. President Cabrera has the home court advantage here. And he became president of this legendary institution three months before the global pandemic kicked off and guided that institution through the pandemic to emerge stronger than.

So, folks, this is the evening session of the Global Hope Forum. Again, we have a secondary stream going, so you can actually go to the Black Star Network, our YouTube channel, to actually see that as well. Let's talk about authorities in Pennsylvania arresting the man they say is a strong person of interest in the shooting death of a UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, which took place in Midtown Manhattan last week. At a news conference today, police identified the person of interest as 26-year-old Luigi Mangione. He was spotted at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, was taken into custody. They say found in his possession

was the ghost gun and suppressor that was consistent with the weapon that was used to kill Thompson. He also had a fake New Jersey ID and matching the one they believed to have been used at a Manhattan hotel. Also, he was in possession of what they call a handwritten document that was a manifesto complaining about the health care system. This, of course, has generated extreme interest, Nola, over the last week because a lot of people have been commenting about health care, commenting about costs being denied. I saw one social video where they said all of a sudden a number of people in the last two or three days started having their health care expenses approved. This has sent shockwaves throughout the health care industry.

And, of course, you also had the one hospital that said they were not going to be paying for anesthesia past a certain number of hours. They had to come back and repeal that decision. This has really caused a lot, a lot of conversation about health care costs being denied benefits. And a lot of these health care companies are being put on notice, and these executives are scared, calling security firms left and right as a result of this murder. Absolutely. We're going to start seeing more CEOs, more folks with their personal security. It's going to start looking like countries that do not resemble the United States. But, you know, here we are. But this goes back also to the first story of the evening, the Penny case, vigilantism. Like this is a thing. This is this is a thing where people are not seeing justice in traditional places where justice is supposed to be doled out, doled out.

And they are taking matters into their own hands. And another interesting part of this story is earlier this evening when we got the biographic information about the person who may or may not have shot the CEO. So this story is unfolding. It's interesting, but I think this through thread of people resorting to violence as a means of justice, this is something that we really have to keep an eye on. And it's not just health care CEOs out there that are going to be getting private security. It's going to be all of them out there, especially, especially as this new Trump cabinet that's built on, you know, on top of one billionaire after the other, after the other, after the

other, and people start, after the other, and people start realizing what they bought they want to return, they're not going to like that. That's not going to sit well with a lot of Americans. So right now, the way justice is looking in this country, people taking justice into their own hands, that is definitely something domestically that I know that, you know, agencies like the FBI are paying attention to. But what's going to happen to the FBI under different leadership? We don't know. You know, Cameron, this is first of all, I don't understand at all people on social media gloating about the murder of this CEO.

You can be angry with health healthcare companies and decisions that they make and not gloat about a murder. So I don't quite understand that. But what it has done is forced a lot of people to confront the reality of what's happening in this country. You hear these other folks tout how we have the best healthcare system in the world, when actually we don't. We have a system that is driven by insurance companies, and it is a for-profit system. That's a whole separate thing than someone plotting and planning to kill an executive. And so this should cause a significant concern to people in this country, in different professions, to have people who are targeting

individuals who they simply disagree with, whether it's company policy or things along those lines. And so that cannot be overlooked and overshadowed. Roland, no, it can't. We at no point should we be applauding the loss of life. I mean, me personally, I'm even against the death penalty. I'd rather have people just be in jail if that punishment is there. But as you've seen and I think you pointed out a little bit in the opening, there has really been a new surge of almost TikTok and Instagram social media trends around people sharing their horror stories with the health care system, UnitedHealthcare specifically, talking about the different things that they were claimed and denied. And it's tapping into that anger. But what we can't, I mean, this man, if it is Luigi or whoever it is, does need to be brought to justice and it needs to be very public justice through our flawed justice system. But it needs to, people need to see that there is a consequence here because there's a lot of big

industries that people don't like. I mean, everything from whether it be car sales, energy companies, and the likes, health care and so forth, it cannot be open season on executives because where does that – that is a slippery slope that we do not want to go down there. There are other forms of recourse to fight against if you feel you've been unjustly done. And this is not as me kind of caking for the health care system or our health care industry or some of these exorbitant prices people have to pay. But we do have to ride that fine line of where people are able to disagree, people are able to express their disagreement, but it cannot be open season on executives because then this turns into a much scarier place. And then I get our people and folks who, how does that wrath come down from police and law enforcement if they now aggressively push back in this protection or so forth? So we've got to make sure that this murderer is brought to justice. And people have to see and understand it

and see that it was a fair and clear trial, but that there were consequences for this action. I'm a Congo. Well, look, I'm not surprised at the online comments. You know why? Because remember, just four years ago, we had the George Floyd challenge, where people were recreating George Floyd's murder, and, you know, from everything from the urinating, the calling out for the mob, and posting it on their pages. And that was when I really started to see how depraved people were becoming online. And so I expect there to be more of this. And I'm sitting here reminding people, this guy was, you know, had a wife and two children.

So, yeah, we need to work on the common humanity, whether we're talking about our first case with Jordan, whether we're talking about this, whether we're talking about, you know, George Floyd. Another thing we have to be mindful of, Roland, is that from what they're showing right now, it seems like this gun was made from a 3D printer. That's what they're showing right now, it seems like this gun was made from a 3D printer. That's what they're showing at the moment. And if that's the case, I mean, that's opening up a whole new door. So anybody could be targeted by anyone who has this type of capability. And so we're having conversations about gun violence here. We're having conversations about social media depravity. And we're having conversations about the health care industry. And the fact of the matter is that we have a president who's coming in and embracing violence

and also somebody who's talking about ending Obamacare, which he claimed that he saved. And as he said to Kristen Walker, he got concepts of a plan. My point is that there's going to be more problems coming for the healthcare industry, which is going to lead to more frustration, which might lead towards more retaliation.

And this is something we got to get a fix on right now before it's too late. All right, folks, hold tight one second. We're going to go to a break. But first, we're going to go back into the main evening session at the Global Hope Forum where they're having a conversation about AI. And when we come back, we're going to talk about more news of the day right here on Roland Martin on Filter and the JOBS Act. People just like you helped build Fanbase. And we're looking for more people to help build Fanbase. We are currently raising $17 million

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That gets you 60 shares of stock in Fan base right now today, and then use fan base to connect with friends, grow your audience and be you without limits. Now streaming on the black star network. I had been trying to get a record deal for a long time. You know, when I finally got signed to the Motown record label in 2003, I was 34, 35 years old. And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music and you send it, you know, to the record labels. Or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend knows somebody that works send it you know to the record labels or maybe

somebody a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for you know the record label and uh and really chemistry was that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business how long have you been trying i've been trying since i was since i was a teenager wow and uh and and and you know and i'm grateful that it didn't i'm grateful that it happened when it happened, because I wasn't prepared as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. Only 25% of small businesses actually have access to a mentor. So the ability to then democratize information, bring together, you know, tools, information, whether you're trying to start a business, ideate around a business, grow your business, learn how to digitize your business, market your business. It's all there. Cyber security information and how to make sure that you're building your online business safely, you know,

is in this tool. And so we've created an easy access at your fingertips. And I think the more we could get information into small businesses' hands, get those tasks based out, get the quick information so that they can focus on the strategies and the bigger things that they need to do around their businesses will see growth. And so this is just one way that I would suggest. And you could try this beta that's going on starting tomorrow. It's very exciting. Under Secretary Silver, as I mentioned, your remit and all the things you're focused on,

they all seem extremely important. So I don't know how you and the department prioritize those. Where is, where does AI safety fit in and how has that changed over the past 12, 18, 24 months? It fits in right at the top because one, it's very important in its own right. And two, the other things we talked about, counterterrorism and the border, you know, there's established architectures that we've developed over years or decades. AI safety and security is a newer field. And it's been really important for us to focus in, not just as a department of the government, but together with industry stakeholders and civil society groups that have an interest in this. But people always expect that I'm going to come out very doom and gloom about all the risks. And there are risks, and they're real, and they have to be

addressed head on. But listen, this technology is going to cure cancer. It's going to level up people's economic opportunities. I mean, today, I'm going to give you an example of how we're using it as a customer. There is an epidemic of fentanyl in this country. It is killing tens and tens of thousands of Americans every year, white and black, rural and urban, rich and poor. And it is really easy to conceal. You know, a few grains of it, like a salt shaker's worth, can kill a person. We have deployed, started using at the border, AI tools. And here's a story that happened recently. A car rolled up at the Tijuana to San Diego border

crossing to try to get from Mexico into the U.S. We had an AI tool up in action. It recognized the car. It recognized an anomaly in some of that car's prior activity that we had observed. And it told in 1.4 seconds, it returned an indicator to our border agent, send that for further look. He sent it to secondary inspection, 50 kilos. So this is going to, that is one micro, micro example. And we are using it, it is going to make the American people safer in that way and, because you don't want to have accidents, particularly as AI technology is used in core operations for the power grid or air traffic control. You want to make sure that that's done in a safe and secure way. What we've done is we've convened leading stakeholders

together with our department to find the right approaches to do that. And in addition to the government representatives, some of our members of that advisory board included Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, people like Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai. But then critically, we also had civil rights leaders. We had mayors and governors. And we had the corporate end users of AI technology

so that everybody was around the same table saying, what do we all need to do? Because we all have roles and responsibilities here to make sure that we can harness all these incredible benefits and reduce risk. And I think we're doing the right steps when it comes to that. It seems like this... All right, folks, we are here again. We're in Atlanta at the 10th Annual Hope Global Forums.

And so we have a separate live stream of that conversation. It's an open session discussing, of course, AI. And so let's continue our show here, folks. There was a lawsuit that was filed against P. Diddy. Now, Jay-Z has been added to that by Houston attorney Tony Busby, alleging a sexual assault with a 13-year-old in the year 2000. Now, Jay-Z, of course, is firing back at that attorney, saying that he is trying to be extorted. He released a statement that was, you know, straightforward and hardcore. He said, my lawyer received a blackmail attempt, called a demand letter from a lawyer named Tony Busby.

What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle. No, sir, it had the opposite effect. It made me want to expose you for the fraud you are in a very public fashion. So, no, I will not give you one red penny. These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one. Whomever would commit such a crime against the minor should be locked away.

Would you not agree? These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case. This lawyer, who I have done a bit of research on, seems to have a pattern of these type of theatrics. I have no idea how you have come to be such a deplorable human, Mr. Busby, but I promise you I have seen your kind many times over. I am more than prepared to deal with your type. You claim to be a Marine. Marines are known for their valor.

You have neither honor nor dignity. My only heartbreak is for my family. My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims and explain the cruelty and greed of people. I mourn yet another loss of innocence. Children should not have to endure such at their young age. It is unfair to have to try to understand inexplicable degrees of malice meant to destroy families in human spirit. My heart and support goes out to true victims in the world who have to watch how their life story is dressed in costume for profitability by this ambulance chaser in a cheap suit. You have made a terrible error in judgment thinking that all celebrities are the same. I'm not from your world. I'm a young man who

made it out of the project of Brooklyn. We don't play these type of games. We have very strict codes and honor. We protect children. You seem to exploit people for personal gain. Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against

me that if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids will be laughable. I look forward to showing you just how different I am. That right there, quite a strong statement, Cameron, from Jay-Z. Again, the initial lawsuit was filed against Diddy. Jay-Z was added to it. He filed a claim against Busby and now has gone public. Your thoughts? I will say this. Jay-Z is very clear on where he stands, he and his team. Usually when you see these types of letters or denial letters, they're a little more muted. Jay-Z, that might

have been one of the strongest, most forceful statements in response to a lawsuit there. We are going to get the facts. And we I mean, Jay-Z has been a kind of pillar in the hip hop, hip hop community for for more than 20 plus years. Nothing like this has ever been attached to his name before. But it does seem that with this trial of Diddy, and there's all this different speculation on who may have known what, this may be a discovery of facts. But if Jay-Z, I'm sure before writing something so forceful and putting it out publicly, knowing he's going to be held to task to that, when that does, if this does even ever make it to court or get dismissed, I'm just hoping I think that narrative of where he talks about how in this day and age, some of those lawsuits or accusations can come against people. And now he has to explain it to his family, children and so forth.

So I'm just hoping I know kind of personally that this is true and that we can believe Jay-Z just for so much he's done for both hip hop and the culture in the community. And if it is and if Jay-Z does, it is proven right in the court of law. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened

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Public opinion. I think this also is a huge damper on Tony Busby, who is kind of gained some national prominence over these last few years by trying to do these big class action lawsuits and so forth. On Congo. This was a statement that Jay-Z wrote on his Congo. This was a statement, uh, that Jay-Z wrote on his iPhone. Uh, it did not come through his lawyer. Uh, and this came directly from him. Uh, and so, uh, and he makes it clear, not one red penny. You don't know who I am talking about strict code. Uh, this is going to be a fierce legal battle, uh, between Tony Busby and Jay-Z and his lawyers.

Look, you know, Roland, I have a doctorate on Jay-Z. I've been teaching a class on Jay-Z for about five years now at American University. There's a lot I've learned about this brother. And as Cameron was saying, this type of story is not something that really represents a lot of things that have been said about Jay-Z over the years. Now, people did talk about like Jay-Z and Foxy Brown, and she was younger. People threw out that. And he is somebody, you know, through the foundation, through a lot of the community works, has definitely been seen as somebody who was a protector of children, somebody who values children. So this investigation needs to go out fully.

One of the challenges I see out there is that people are already going to play the, are already playing the guilty by association game because Jay-Z is somebody who's been involved in projects with R. Kelly and Diddy, as well as Harvey Weinstein. But so many other people in the industry have. So people are throwing out this like attracts like, and I think that's not fair. We need a full investigation. And all of us in here on this show tonight want to be protectors of Black kids and Black girls

and just in general. And so nobody's here has given this man a pass. A full investigation needs to be done. But I will say after studying him for so long, the fact that he would issue this statement personally himself, this means that this is something that he holds very dear, because oftentimes he has spoken through his lawyers, even as recently, remember with Piers Morgan and Jaguar Wright, just like last month or a month or two ago, had the lawyers respond. And so I think that this is

something he's going to fight tooth and nail, and all the facts need to come out. And it's very unfortunate if there's any type of truth. And even if there's not truth, it's also unfortunate that someone's name will be dragged through the mud for something that they didn't do. But like Cameron was saying, this is something that's not been in history with Jay-Z that a lot of people have talked about in the industry. They've talked a lot about some of these other guys, including Diddy, before these charges came against him. Noah. So first and foremost, I think about the young woman in his suit.

You know, the first thing that my ears heard was that Jay-Z was added to the lawsuit. So I wonder under which circumstances that happened, you know, why he wasn't named in the first lawsuit and why he was added. That's like the first question that I'm curious about. And I'm very curious about the well-being of this woman who brought forth this case. Because it is Jay-Z, the burden of proof will be, well, it's a civil case. You know, Jay-Z challenged him, you know, let's go to criminal court, let's see some evidence. So as we all know, the barrier is lowered when it's a civil suit. But I'm really worried about the role of the woman in this. If she's being manipulated in some sort of way, she deserves justice. You know, so that's kind of first and foremost.

Why did he get added? What's going on behind all of that? Secondly, when this first happened, if anyone who knows me, like, you know that I'm a huge, huge hip-hop fan. And Jay-Z got me through my years at Harvard. Like, honestly, I would get off the red line listening to public service announcements just because I had to reintroduce myself to myself every day. Like, Jay is, like, philosophically, lyrically, he's that guy for me. And, of course course I love Beyonce, but all that being said, I am a big believer in believe the victim. I want to know more about this case. This is the type of case because of

the type of person you were going after the family that you were going after. We need receipts. We need evidence because you were persecuting one of the pillars of the black community in that this is a man who made it out of projects. And if you listen to his music, you listen to his wisdom. One of the things that people admire about him are the smart moves that he's made. Diddy's always been the party guy. That doesn't necessarily mean that he's guilty of everything he's been charged with. He's always had that image. Sean Carter, a little bit different. It's always been about wisdom and making smart moves and his family,

right? Well, not always about this family. There were the bad guy days. But anyway, my point being, this is a different type of person that Busby is coming after. And then my third point is, I talked to a lot of lawyer friends last night about this, and the first thing that they all collectively said is that Busby himself has an iffy record, that this is part of his tactic. So it's not only Jay-Z's reputation on the line, it's Busby's reputation on the line to pick this fight. I really, really hope he has the receipts to prove to prove his allegations, because this one, the community, we're already hurting. We already going through a lot. And now you want to come with this, especially if there aren't any real receipts to prove this allegation. I wish him well. Yeah, it's going to be something that's going to be very interesting to see you all.

Roland's going to be back shortly. But this is something, if we don't pay attention to it and cover it the way that only we can at the Black Star Network, we know that people are just going to run away with it. So we're definitely going to be keeping an eye on this. And like you're saying, Nola, it's always important that we respect the victims and the people who are the accusers. And like you said, we have to make sure that all of the facts come out. So we're definitely going to be paying attention to this. We'll be right back with more Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. What's up, y'all?

Look, Fanbase is more than a platform. It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly to rule their community through the jobs ad. Now streaming on the Black Star Network. I had been trying to get a record deal for a long time. Now streaming on the Blackstar Network. You record your demo, you record your music, and you send it to the record labels. Or maybe a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for the record label. And really, chemistry was my last-ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying? I've been trying since I was a teenager.

Wow. And I'm grateful that it I was a teenager. Wow. And, you know, and I'm grateful that it didn't, I'm grateful that it happened when it happened because I wasn't prepared, you know, as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. We'll be right back. and what happens in black culture. Covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people-powered movement. There's a lot of stuff that we're not getting.

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Zelle is roland at rolandsmartin.com. One. Open mic. All right, folks, sorry about that. We had a power failure here. And so we're going to go back into the main room here at the Operation Hope Global Forums. And I'll come back in a second. Permacrisis, frankly, you know, from one thing to the next, COVID, war, shifts in technologies happening, people have to have a learning agility and an ability to pick up new things, adjust, and have the bravery and the capacity to test and learn their way into new ways of thinking, new strategies, new innovation. So I think some of these softer skills, by the way, being a strong people leader

and understanding people, ensuring you're getting people trained and having empathy these days is also important. So humanity combined with technology, these are the skills that we're going to need. Undersecretary, for those looking to work on these exciting issues from a policy standpoint or in that arena, how have the skills kind of morphed over time? Well, I actually just want to hook on to one thing that's been discussed and the impact on job displacement and such. First, just over the course of modern technology innovation, the advent of new technologies has tended to create job opportunities net-net, not disrupt them. The advent of the car certainly crushed the horse and buggy industry,

and the advent of the PC certainly had a lot of impact on the typewriter industry. And you need to think about how to take care of the people that are impacted by that. But there's no question that everybody has benefited significantly at a net level. And I think something that's really interesting about AI that is actually different from a lot of tech innovation is the negative impacts of prior technology revolutions have tended to fall hardest on those with the least privilege and advantage. Automation and factories and things like that that put people on a white-collar set of activities that first comes to mind. You know, copywriters, lawyers, accountants, things like that. And I'm actually convinced that this could be a technology revolution. Like, if John Hope Bryant has created anything, it is an organization that is meant to create economic opportunity for everyone. And this may be

a technology revolution that levels up opportunity for people that haven't had it. I mean, if you think about a kid who grew up black in Atlanta or white in Appalachia with brothers and sisters and parents that didn't go to college, they might, but they have something, they may not know how to write a resume. But with generative AI, they can put together a beautiful resume that looks like they've worked at Goldman Sachs in its format. And that is something that is going to be a godsend

for a lot of people. And so there is going to be job displacement. And I don't want to minimize the human impact of that where it happens. But I think, like, these things tend to end up well for society. And I think that's going to be the case for this, too. Yeah, so, Sarah, on this point of economic opportunity, financial freedom, these opportunities we have with technological revolution. All right, folks.

Again, we are here in Atlanta at the Operation Hope Global Forum. So we have a separate feed going of that. And so we're back live. So when we lost our power, I was talking to our panel about this lawsuit against Jay-Z and Diddy. And, you know, Nola, you were making a point, and you're absolutely right. The laws were changed in New York State and California. There was a window to allow people to be able to file these civil lawsuits when these actions have been alleged.

But you have several things that are going on. So you have that, and you have concern about the alleged victim, but you also have due process and concern about those who are accused. And what you see here, Tony Busby came out, and he said that he was getting phone calls from people all around the country alleging acts against Diddy and others. And he began to, you know, file a suit. Here, what you have was an example, again, and I think what stands out, and in many ways, this reminds me of when Justin Fairfax, the former lieutenant governor of Virginia, was accused of a sexual assault.

And when he came out and said, I'll take a lie detector test, he called on the D.A. in Boston and the D.A. in Raleigh, North Carolina, to step up and actually investigate the case. And that was that was that was rare because typically you don't have somebody who's been accused of something demand for a criminal investigation. And so here what you have is when the J.C. issues this type of a statement, you know, he's laying down a marker against his attorney. I mean, he's targeting this attorney directly, questioning his motives as a Marine and things along those lines. You rarely see this type of response when an allegation is made. And according to Busby, Busby said that they did not want compensation, but they wanted private mediation, which then caused others to say, well, I'm confused. Well, if you don't want money, why would you want a private mediation?

And so, like I said, this is going to be a very, very fierce battle because Busby is saying, I'm not backing down. And with that statement, J.C. clearly says, I'm not giving anything up to you at all. Exactly. This is going to be one of those cases where multiple precedents are going to be made, in my personal opinion. Because clearly Jay-Z has drawn a line

in the sand where he's like, you are coming for me. My children are going to be involved because other children are going to ask them about it. You know, this is his reputation, something that he's built for a very long time. And it also says to me that, you know, if you've been a fan of Jay-Z's and you listen to his music, this also sounds like something he's been ready for. Because day one, when the allegations came out about Diddy, people were already looking for Jay-Z to be involved in some sort of way.

And something else that I also saw today is that the blogs are already posting about how the NFL should end its relationship with Jay-Z. And it's a very interesting thing that this particular case will come up in this particular hostile environment, especially against black folks, especially against black folks, especially against black folks that have been seen supporting Democrats. So all of that is going to be baked into this pie. So this is going to be a very interesting case to watch, to see what happens for a lot of reasons.

And people feel very strongly about the Carters. They're very protective of the Carters. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens culturally, legally, and to see how this affects the, you know, relationships. Because right now, a lot of relationships amongst people are fraught. So, and then we'll also keep an eye on to see if the NFL does, you know, sever its relationship with with Jay-Z. It's a lot to keep an eye on. We're talking here on Congo money, lots of money. We saw what happened to Diddy when the with the Cassidy lawsuit was filed. It impacts financially. And you're right, there are all sorts of business deals,

things along those lines that are involved here. And, you know, as I said, typically when you have a celebrity who was accused, you sort of have a different, you know, again, you typically don't want it to be in the headlines. Here was Jay-Z going public. A lawsuit was filed. And remember, Busby said, you know, they're a prominent entertainer.

Jay-Z was not named. Later, he was named. And the naming of Jay-Z apparently came after Jay-Z's attorneys filed a suit against Busby. And so this is going to be a very contentious public legal battle. Yeah. And it's really important that Jay-Z and his team stay in front of this because I'm going to throw out another celebrity that we can talk about is Jonathan Majors. And look what happened with his career as well. And it's on the rebound, as some say, but he's already lost a lot. And like Nola was saying with this thing with the NFL, similar with like a Jonathan Major, is once certain deals are gone, especially for people in our community to get to these spaces, they're not coming back.

Just like Jonathan Major is not going to be playing Kang in Avengers. Like if Jay-Z loses like the partnership with the NFL or some of these other places, I can't see them coming back. Nor could I see Jay-Z even wanting to mess with them if he's completely cleared of everything. And so in our community, when endorsement deals like this or connections like this happen with accusations like this and they get lost, there can be real damaging consequences. I think that's another reason why Jay-Z is getting ahead of this, because you can't let a certain narrative continue to play

its way in the media, on television and so on and so forth without giving any type of fire in return. And there's also people out there and all who are saying that the other person who was present was Beyonce, because they're saying that there was a third, there was a woman present when this happened. And so, again, this is an innocent until proven guilty. People need to fight this with everything that they have. And again, we need to find out what's happening with this victim. She was 13 years old at the time. Clearly, she's talking about something that happened with somebody that involved rape. So we absolutely have to be making sure that this person is being protected as well, making sure that there's not manipulation going on.

I've heard a lot of negative things about Busby, but a lot of people talk about he has a great career representing people like Warren Buffett and all of this other type of stuff. But we just have to make sure in our community that we're doing our due diligence, because if anybody's guilty of this stuff, they're not going to keep our support or protection, or at least not the protection and support of those of us here. We know some people in our community who still mess with R. Kelly, got no problems with his music and so on and so forth, but we got to do better than that. We got to support victims. We got to listen to them. But we also have to make sure that people are not being unnecessarily maligned because that also happens too much in this industry and in all types of industry, famous or non-famous. You look at that statement, Cameron, he uses the word extortion.

That's not a word thrown around lightly. And that's what really stood out to me in reading this statement that was, again, typed on his iPhone. He is directly calling out the victim's attorney by saying this man is trying to extort me and I ain't going to do it. He says he ain't getting one red penny. You don't, you don't hear folk respond that way. Uh, and it doesn't matter if people are running left and right and people I'm seeing social media and folks are like, Oh, uh, he's guilty. Things along those lines. Uh, this is somebody, uh, has resources, who could settle, but who makes it clear, ain't settling. And I still would love to understand from Busby, what I say is the victim

isn't seeking money. We wanted private mediation. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real.

It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. For what purpose? So it's going to be, again, really interesting to see what happens here. And I doubt very seriously the partners of Jay-Z are going to abandon him.

But this is also something that we have to understand that, yes, there are alleged victims. But when you say that someone is an alleged rapist, that now doesn't go away. Even if you settle, even if you're found not guilty. And so it's not even a question of they have to prove it. Really, you have to actually prove it yourself. That's why this is so contentious and why his response was so surprising. Yeah, Roland, I would take two things from what I saw Jay-Z in the response and the implications there. One, Jay-Z has been famous and really rich and really famous for going on 30 years now, something along that line. So he has had top flight legal support and help to do the intricacy of business deals and all the successes he has had.

And for him to skip all the probably millions of dollars in retainers that he pays some of the best lawyers in the world, definitely in the country, to represent him and to give a direct response when he, I'm pretty sure, has been trained for this to go through the lawyers and so forth, means it at least points to a person who is fully confident that at least he understands the truth and that this is something he's not guilty of there. And then I think having worked, obviously, for a decade plus in the corporate communications industry, we also deal with a lot of crisis communications. And often, usually in celebrities or high-profile, high-ranking campaigns and or high-profile corporate positions and so forth,

it is a tactic to be able to try to get this mediated and settled early because they know most people fear the bad publicity. And so for Jay-Z to kind of look for no settlement, I don't know what private mediation looks like. It looks like 20 years later, if it is not tied to any kind of financial compensation and this is not a and there's no criminal recourse. I'm no lawyer, but I'm not sure exactly what they would be looking for then. Other than, like I said, like this is a huge smear on his name. And then the other the other big thing that this does and that we must protect against, but it's kind of baked in the cake now is this online matrix. Now with so many different stories and so many different attached keywords, everything that's going to happen in the Diddy lawsuit, now Jay-Z's name, when you Google his name, these might be one of those first type of top things

that pop up in the search engine, the way that looks. And I think there's material damage just to his brand there just by being even named in this so um if this is something uh hopefully but if this is something that jay-z is found innocent of i think he has huge recourse uh for busby to to go after him uh because now just for for now into how who knows how long just if you search his name the matrix of stories of this will be attached to him as opposed to all his accomplishments all right folks hold tight one second when we come back we'll talk about uh congressman jim clyburn saying that president uh biden if he he gave Donald Trump a part, he would support that. I don't even understand why this is a conversation.

You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support the work that we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. You want to give us via cash app, you can do so by using the Stripe QR code you see right here on the screen. And so you can go right there. You can see your checking money. Order the PO Box 57196, Washington, DC, 2007-0196, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo, RM Unfiltered, Zelle, Roland at RolandSMartin.com,

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I was 34, 35 years old. And up until that time, I had been trying to get record deals the traditional way. You know, you record your demo, you record your music, and you send it, you know, to the record labels, or maybe somebody, a friend of a friend knows somebody that works for, you know, the record label. And really, chemistry was, that was my last ditch effort at being in the music business. How long have you been trying?

I've been trying since I was a teenager. Wow. And I'm grateful that it didn't, I'm grateful that it happened when it happened, because I wasn't prepared as a teenager to embrace all that comes with a career in the music industry. This is Motown recording artist Kim. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Boy, he always unfiltered, though. I ain't never known him to be filtered.

Is there another way to experience Roland Martin than to be unfiltered? Of course he's unfiltered. Would you expect anything less? Watch what happens next. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, folks. Welcome back to Rolling Mark Unfiltered, the Black Stud Network. We're here at the 10th annual Operation Hope Global Forums. A lot of conversations taking place with regards to whether President Joe Biden should pardon Donald Trump. Well, on MSNBC, Congressman Jim Clyburn actually said this.

Do you think that President Biden should pardon Donald Trump? And if so, why? Yes, I do think so. And I think he should pardon all of those people that have been accused and have been targeted so that we can clean the slate. We can have an air of possibilities for the future. If we keep digging at things of the past, I'm not too sure the country will not lose its way.

Now, remember, President Trump has been indicted—has been convicted on state crime. Also, please remember that the United States Supreme Court has given him immunity. And so, I'm asking people who question my thought on this to explain to me how he would be any more insulated by this pardon than he seems to already be by the United States Supreme Court. Joe Biden will be demonstrating what he's always demonstrated to me, that he loves this country more than anything else other than maybe his family. He wants to see this country going forward. He doesn't want to see us keep digging into the past when moving forward. So I think it would give him tremendous opportunity for him to demonstrate that kind of concern for the future of the country. I'm sorry. Look, I got great respect for Congressman Jim Clyburn, but hell no.

Absolutely, positively, hell no. And I'm sick and tired. I'm sick and tired of Democrats playing this, we're going to go high, a sense of normalcy. Let me be clear. When Donald Trump lost, he didn't welcome Vice President Joe Biden to the White House like Biden welcomed him, like Obama welcomed him. He didn't do that. Did Trump come to the inauguration for the peaceful transfer of power? Hell no. He didn't do that. But Democrats are,

oh no, you know, we have to, for the good of the country, for what's right and a sense of normalcy. This is not a normal person. So why are we playing this sense of normalcy game with somebody who flouts? Yesterday, Christian Welker of NBC aired an interview with him, and he still refused to concede the 2020 election. I am sick and tired of Democrats trying to treat this man like he's normal. He's not. And I'm going to tell you, I'm a Congo. If I'm Vice President Harris or Biden, the hell with him and the inauguration. I don't need to be there. This man flouts norms.

This man doesn't care. And Republicans are right there with him. But everyone else is supposed to treat them with deference, with respect, with dignity of office. When he shows none of that, there is no way in hell that Biden should even remotely consider giving this thug a pardon. And just look at history in terms of the Nixon pardon and where that gets, folks, right? Look, Democrats are already struggling with their base right now. People felt like Vice President Harris ran away from the base, ran to the center, ran to the Liz Cheney's of the world, and didn't pay enough attention to their base. The base does not want to see

Donald Trump get pardoned in any way, shape or form. And so people are already frustrated with the Democratic Party for not fighting for our core values. This is really going to push them over and they're going to lose a whole generation of Democrats and potential Democrats. We're talking about accountability. And this country has a terrible history of not holding people accountable for their racist actions, whether we're going back to the Civil War and what happened with Dell, with the people who were part of the Confederacy, whether we're talking about slave owners getting reparations, whether we're talking about this right now. And look, people are really acting like, oh, because Biden pardoned his son, now Trump has a permission structure to pardon the January 6th insurrectionists. He was already going to do that.

He's already had a term where he abused the pardon process. So this has really nothing to do with that. And people keep creating this false equivalency with Hunter Biden and Trump. Hunter Biden, who took responsibility for what he did. Trump will still want to acknowledge the election right now. So, Biden, if you love this country, how about loving the rule of law? How about holding people accountable? Because people are treating him like that 17-year-old kid in college who's just making these dumb mistakes and just needs another chance because people just don't want him to ruin his life.

The man tried to overthrow the country. He's an insurrectionist, documents, stole documents, all of that, and no one's supposed to have any consequences for that, I have so much respect for Representative Clyburn for him to suggest that. And people actually think also this is going to be like, Trump's going to be like, oh my gosh, kumbaya, then I better not do that. Right. Got another thing coming.

Got another thing coming. Noah? Noah? Ooh. Everything that Amakongo said, yes, yes, and yes. And I also have a profound, profound respect for Representative Clyburn. He's done so much for this country and so much for his constituency. But when I heard this last night, I had to double check because I thought I was losing my mind.

I thought I misheard. And the thing about Representative Clyburn's statement that keeps rolling around in my mind is the last part when he says that he's already been convicted and he has immunity, but somehow he's insulated. I guess the argument that he's making is he already has the tools to do what he wants to do. So why not pardon him? Which is a very interesting line of argumentation. It's a very interesting line of logic to follow. If that is what he was getting at, my point is I was very confused. I was trying to follow his logic, you know, trying to set the emotion aside and actually follow the logic, but it's a little bit confusing. And, you know, as a professor on a college campus, I can tell you that young folks are already feeling disconnected, disaffected, already feel like that voting does not matter, that it's all

a joke, and that there is absolutely no accountability. To Omokongo's point, and I have been talking about this all day on Blue Sky and Threads, literally a generation of black Dems will disappear. Young folks will vote. If you think the voting turnout was low this time, wait until four years from now, because people will no longer believe anything that Democrats have to say, and they definitely will not believe in institutions. So, you know, it's a lot at stake here. It's very confusing as to why he would make that argument. And in my personal opinion, he hasn't made it sufficiently other than, you know, let's just move on as a country. But no, Harry Dunn wrote yesterday that the incoming president wants to pardon the people who tried to kill me. He wrote a sub stack about that just yesterday.

No people cannot move on, especially after we saw how South Korea handled their little insurrectionists in 2.5 seconds. No people are not willing to move on. People are still waiting for accountability. People are still waiting to want to believe in a Democratic Party again. And people are wanting to still believe in institutions. But if we just go ahead and move on, if we just let the bully win yet again, good luck. Good luck in two years and in four years. I just do not think it is a strategy that. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time.

Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company

dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means

to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. that folks want to it's not a strategy that will work

it will backfire right and the thing here Cameron again what it will say is you can attempt you can be the first individual who acquires the Oval Office to attempt to overthrow the election and we're attempt to overthrow the election,

and we're going to go and give you a pardon. Now, damn that. I'm sorry. I'm just, no, this man is evil. This man had contempt for the country. This man continues to advance lies. He should not be rewarded with a pardon. Point blank, period.

I think there's two things I'm noticing here. One, we've got to stand on business, as the kids will say. You've got to stand on business. I think you just mentioned before me that so many different people, when you look at exit polling,

you look at focus groups and talk about one of the things that annoyed them about Democrats or the Democratic Party and various Democratic candidates, is the fact that they couldn't tell what they stood for. Even if Republicans are wrong on something or a lot of people feel they're wrong, they're standing on their business. They're standing on something that they believe is right and wrong. This is not an opera. This isn't a time where there is clearly was something wrong. We all saw January 6th happen. Trump being convicted of so many different crimes. There's no need to pardon him, especially given the fact that apparently, like I said, he has the tools to insulate himself anyways.

In addition to what the the effect of immunity due to the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year. And again, the deepest respect to Congressman Clyburn. He has given such wise counsel to so many, including President Biden. This is one of those times where I hope I've even seen everybody from Stephen A. Smith talk about on his show to others and like, go ahead and pardon Trump. I think this is also rooted in the fact that this is going to cause even more togetherness or maybe cause, if he doesn't do it, it will cause more polarization.

When we've got to remember, in this day and age, people forget stuff. It happens this morning. They may forget it this evening, let alone in a year, two, four years when we come to election. If you think we're going to, Democrats or any Democratic candidate is going to be able to

ride on, ride and run on this accomplishment or on something that say, oh, look, president, our last president pardoned Trump in the spirit of bipartisanship or unity or something like that. People don't care. We, the electorate has changed. People have changed. And all that does is show, I think feeds into a larger narrative that Democrats are a little spineless or are a little are willing to count out and are trying to do everything that way. Oh, absolutely. All right, folks, hold tight one second. John Hope Bryant, the founder of Operation Hope, is now speaking in the main ballroom. Let's go live there.

Final Christmas party of the Trump administration. And after a couple hours, I finally got the guts to go up to the president and ask him, what does the not doing politics here. One third, one third of the country has actually stopped talking to someone because they disagree with them. And this happened over Thanksgiving and it's going to happen over Christmas. You know who it happens with most? Grandfathers and granddaughters. It's the strongest family relationship. It's not husband-wife, obviously, or brother or sister or parent-child.

It's grandparent-grandchild because they both have the same enemy. You'll figure that one out on your way home, trust me. And we can't be treating each other like this. It is a genuine problem. And I'm going to show you something right now because I'm going to give you my first piece of advice. Two-thirds of people under age 30 know someone personally who's been damaged by social media. Damaged intellectually, physically, mentally, emotionally. How many of you have got children between the ages of 10 and 18 in this room? Raise your hands. Okay, you're going to want to write this down, and maybe you've got grandchildren this age. I'm going to give you, in order, the way to keep your children happy and healthy, drug-free and alcohol-free. Number one, how often do you have dinner with them at night?

It needs to be five nights a week or more, because that proves to them that they're the most important thing in your life. If you're having dinner with them two nights a week or less, they're being damaged. They're being destroyed. Nothing matters more. And I mean whatever financial efforts you want. Whatever you're trying to seek in life, there's nothing more important than your children.

And there's nothing more important than dining with them. Because that tells them that they come first. Number two, how often do you attend religious services with them? You want to do it once a week, because if they believe in God, then they believe in something that is more important than themselves, something that they cannot see. But they know it's there. Number three, do you check their homework four nights a week or more? Because that teaches them that their intellectual. So, folks, pollster Frank Luntz is speaking right now. One of the things that he said there, he talked about

a third of Americans not speaking to somebody else. They disagree with him. You know, and I want to focus on that. Cameron, here's the whole deal here. It is very interesting. He raised the point about Thanksgiving and stuff along those lines. We're not talking normal politics here. We're not talking traditional Republican Party versus Democrat, progressive versus conservative. racist, xenophobic, sexist group of people who are advancing an agenda that is shameful and despicable, where they gleefully talk about breaking up families, where Trump has 11 billionaires in his administration,

and all these idiots who voted for populism. No, you voted for oligarchs. These folks want to get rich. When an Elon Musk, what, worth $300 billion, whines and complains about people getting Social Security so he can get richer? I'm sorry. I mean, I saw Anna Kasparin with the Young Turks sitting down for an interview with Glenn Beck. Oh, hell no. The crap has come out of his mouth. This is not the time for progressives, for Democrats to turn into wimps. This is not the time to somehow,

oh my God, I'm so disenchanted with what's going on that I don't know what to do. No, this is called buckle up. Put your chin strap on. This is about having a buckle up. Put your put your chin strap on. This is about having a different type of conversation. Should there be absolute changes within the Democratic Party when it comes to this white consultant class that's reaping billions of dollars and they keep losing and they don't know how to target and speak to regular ordinary people? Absolutely. But I'm sorry. I'm not giving in to the thugs supporting that piece of crap. And I'm not going to normalize his behavior. It ain't going to happen.

Not on this show. Not on this network. Yeah, we, Roland, you know, we've got a deep history of working over the years and having worked in and for the Democratic Party for 15 years in various capacities. I would say this, we often hear is most consequential election. I think this is one of the most consequential times because it was put on full display. I mean, if we, if as a party, you can't, we can't, as a party and on individuals, if you can't realize, it's not just that we want to throw norms out because the other party has thrown norms out. So let's meet them

where they are. People have changed. Society has changed. People's demands and what people are looking for has changed. And quite frankly, I think people can handle somebody who speaks a little more direct. People can handle somebody who's willing to challenge the bully, who's not willing to just acquiesce because they want the niceties of how things used to be. And then this is a chance, I think also you mentioned something about like the white consultant class and so many different folks who we're literally in a place where the way we used to do things clearly does not, does not work and is not working. And we are up against people who have way more financial resources, I would say.

I mean, Elon Musk alone, the fact of what he could fund with the money he finds, the money he may fluctuate up and down the stock market in just a week, could probably dwarf with some of Democrats as a party could raise in a year. And he is showing this in willingness to be able to use his money and influence and his power on X and through his various companies to be a microphone for what, as you mentioned, what's going to make him rich, what's going to make him actually financially rich, him and his companies? It does make me nervous as we go into this next cycle. You've seen the Democratic Party has their new chairmanship in those elections that are coming up. And so many different things you're

starting to realize in some of the postmortems of what happened in this last election are happening. And you're not hearing the deep accountability that needs to come from the people who ran these campaigns and who didn't put those investment dollars early to turn out our various coalitions in our various communities, black communities specifically. It makes me nervous that we're not going to have those same kind of fighters. But as you mentioned, this is not a time to sit back, acquiesce. This is not a time to just let stuff happen. Because if we do not even put up the fight in front and willing to, I wouldn't even just say meet them where they at, but we might need to go a little bit lower

because at this time, like it matters, like playing it the nice way and trying to just go back to those traditional norms are going to continue to get our bus kick butt kicked in elections and then if you don't win you don't govern and then you really don't protect people nola we literally saw elon musk fund a super PAC that was running one type of ad to Jewish voters and another type of ad that would say the direct opposite to Muslim voters. It was a lie in terms of what they were saying. You see what these people are doing. You see how they're operating. And I'm telling you right now, I saw Congressman Ro Khanna on ABC yesterday talking about this Doge Department of whatever the hell, this so-called department that Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk are going to be running, looking for efficiencies in government.

Let's be real clear. If you want to start with efficiencies in government, why are we spending billions of dollars going to Mars? That's funding Elon Musk. I mean, all of these people. I'm telling people right now, you're watching. These folks are looking to loot the system. These 11 billionaires who Trump put in his administration,

they ain't there for regular ordinary people. They are there to get richer. And it's too bad these folks who voted for Trump don't realize that because they ain't looking out for you. And so they they believe the hype. I mean, so this is the moment where people of conscience should not be running away, getting scared. They should be saying, no, this is how we're going to fight this evil. Because, again, the oligarchs, they have invaded the castle. Donald Trump, he is one of them. He don't give a damn about no regular ordinary person. And he sure don't give a damn about anybody black. Well, you know, to your point, Roland, this is one of the reasons why when, you know, when you

have groups of libertarians and these different kind of groups within the far right or just on the edge of the right, you know, that voted for Donald Trump, it has nothing to do with what your convictions are. You know, I'm just going to say very bluntly, I think so many white folks showed up for Donald Trump, even if it went against what they truly believe in, is because he makes it OK for them to be white. He makes it OK. He has restored the status quo in a way to where he put us black folks back on our heels and to say, know your place. And I don't care what people say. They're going to talk about economic reasons all

day long, which are false, which, which are, which is a lie. And, um, they're going to talk about all these different reasons, anti-wokeness, anti-this, anti-that. The only anti-thing that people voted for was anti-blackness, anti-trans, anti-LGBTQIA. They voted to preserve something that does not include what this panel looks like tonight. So let's just put that out there first and foremost, right? And so as a space girl, you know, when you mentioned Mars, I got a little warm and fuzzy because I definitely have a different relationship when I think about space. But even let's just kind of broaden this out to space for a second. We are in a situation where this administration was trying everything in the diplomatic toolbox to make sure that Russia did not put a nuclear weapon up in space and lower Earth orbit.

That is a thing. That is a real thing. It's not a plot to a movie. It's a real thing. So what is now going to happen when an unsanctioned department by Congress is set up for efficiencies, so to speak, what level of diplomatic conversations, what level of safeguards and guardrails are going to be left when you have people who just want to dismantle things so they can make more money? I mean, the threat in space is real, and it matters for everybody's lives every day, because if the threat in space is real and it matters for everybody's lives

every day because if something happens in space, guess what? Your GPS is going to stop working just like that. So I'm just very curious about how this department that isn't legally sanctioned by Congress is supposed to function. What is that going to look like? How are they going to be given powers to tell federal employees that they can no longer work at their jobs? Like, there are just too many questions. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Especially about that department in and of itself. And of all the scary things that we are hearing, that's the one thing that really kind of scares me the most.

And I'm not going to lie, Roland. Like, we need to really, like, drill down on this and figure out what it is they are actually up to well it's clear what they're up to i'm telling you right now if you want to make any comparison all you have to do is look at when putin took over and the oligarchs got their way in russia same thing is happening here when you look at the expansion you look at the expansion of the wealth of the top four people in this country compared to the bottom, that's what's going on here. These people oppose anything that helps regular, ordinary people. These folks are there to get richer. That's what their job is, is to get richer. And they ain't going to fight for anybody

who's regular ordinary. I mean, look, uh, guys, if y'all haven't look, look at the idiot who Donald Trump has picked ahead, the civil rights division, the department of justice. Okay. This is the statement that he put out there. Y'all should have it there in the control room. Uh, tell me if y'all have it. Uh, and again, this individual here, this is where the statement that went out. I mean, listen, this person is an election denier. This person is an election denier. So I need everybody who is watching to pay attention. The Department of Justice, they are not going to be doing anything when it comes to voter suppression cases. Because Harmet Dillon, this woman right here, look at this. She stood up consistently to protect our cherished civil liberties, including taking on big tech for censoring our free speech,

representing Christians who were prevented from praying together during COVID, and suing corporations who use woke policies to discriminate against their workers. Y'all, that's what they're going to be doing. And so I'm just trying to explain to everybody, you're not going to have an aggressive Department of Justice Civil Rights Division focusing on civil rights. They're going to be focusing on religious issues for the far right. They're going to be opposing efforts when it comes to voter expansion.

They're going to be supporting election deniers. Prepare yourself for what is coming. And what I am saying here on Macongo, what is needed, you've got to have people who are staying in this fight, who are willing to stand up and understand what's happening.

You know, I saw Mark Elias, he tweet, oh, mainstream media is ignoring what the Republicans are doing in North Carolina. Well, guess what? We're not on this show. We're not ignoring that. And so, and listen, you got a bunch of other progressive shows out there. They've thrown in the hat there's i mean yank ugr is excited because elon musk is elon musk is taking his suggestions about uh doge man i don't

give a damn about that elon musk doesn't care about any us any of us you already see that with how they want to attack uh medicare you saw donald trump NBC, and Kristen Welker led him by saying, oh, how he saved the Affordable Care Act. No, he didn't. He tried to kill it. That's all these folks do is lie, and I'm telling you right now, okay, if folks want to sit here and just allow these things to happen, all right, we'll see what happens. And you know what? A lot of these loudmouth black folks, okay, yeah, oh yeah,

you B1, you FBA, you ADOS people, let's see what y'all gonna say now. Because see, it's amazing, all these folk had so much smoke for Vice President Kamala Harris, and they so quiet. They real quiet. And a whole bunch of other of loud mouths with YouTube channels who's always talking about what I'm talking about.

It's amazing how quiet they are. But y'all so-called are fighting on behalf of black people, foundational black Americans. But y'all ain't saying nothing about what these folks are putting in place. Yeah. We see y'all. We see what y'all doing. I'm going to go ahead. This is real talk, man. You know, Tim Snyder writes in his book on tyranny about acquiescence in advance to dictators

and a lot of these networks are doing that and, you know, you talk about some of these groups that are talking about reparations and the like. I can add a lot of groups who are talking who are pro-Gaza, pro-Palestinian rights, as we all want a free Palestine. But I've noticed there's no smoke, you know, being directed towards the Trump administration in the same way they did with Biden and Harris as well. So, again, we're seeing so many people give up and acquiesce. These networks that meet the press interview was terrible in terms of just allowing Trump to lie because all of these guys want access.

And I'm going to go back to the first point that you mentioned, Roland, about like not caving in to people who say, oh, you got to work with these people. You got to, you know, acquiesce to them and sit with them. You know, it's a James Baldwin quotation that we've all been seeing. We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist. These people don't want trans people to be alive. They don't want our history as Black people to be taught in schools. They don't want LGBTQ people to be able to have relationships. They don't want women to be able to, you know, what are the, if Fuentes says, your body, my choice.

They don't believe in the fundamental right of everyday humans to exist unless it's under their white male cisgendered thumb. And we got to fight that in every way, sense, and form. I believe in finding common ground, but people got to want to find common ground with you. And if people want to root themselves against our existence, then we got to fight it. And for all of those people out there who are going to be silent right now, and all of the smoke for Biden and Harris, and you showed us what you are truly about as well. And so the fact that you're on the Black Star Network here is like, we're not trying to interview these guys. We're not trying to be cool with these guys. We're going to be the same people

we were before the election, after the election. We're not going to try to switch it up. We need more of that fight in America. We can't have the Clyburns talking about pardoning Trump. We can't have these networks out there trying to get access to Trump and kissing the ring. If we do that, then we're doomed. Facts. Well, I just think that what you're seeing, you're seeing a lot of people who are giving up, who are disgruntled, who are upset. I get all of that. But the one thing that I just refuse to do, I just refuse to betray the ancestors. I mean, we're sitting here in Atlanta, and I was thinking about earlier, the civil rights leaders who, you know, I saw Ambassador Andrew Young, who's 92 years old.

We lost this year so many critical leaders in the last two years. When I think about Reverend James Lawson, I think about Harry Belafonte. I think about Reverend C.T. Vivian, Reverend Joseph Lowry, I think about Henry Hank Aaron, I think about, again, so many who are now ancestors. These folks didn't give up. These folks didn't stop. They, I mean, to their last breath, they were fighting. I think about, again, these individuals were 90 and 91 and 92 years old, 95, 96 96 still swinging still fighting not giving up and i'm listening and i'm sorry i forgive me if i don't have a lot of empathy and compassion for folks in their 20s and 30s who, oh, my God, all hope. We're just tired and we're just we've been fighting.

And, oh, my God, these things. Really? Really? I mean. Assistant Baton Rouge. Lost the reelection on Saturday. Black people, you look at the numbers. Our voting numbers were horrible. So here you got a white guy, football coach, never been to public office before. He gets elected mayor of a city, billion dollar budget, football coach. That's it.

Never run a business. Never in a public office. And so we have in many ways this epidemic, I think, of people who've given up, lost hope, who don't know what to say, what to do. And'm sorry cameron this is not the time this this is not the moment this this is a time where you need people who are yes take a respite go on break do a sabbatical. Well, come back, get in the fight. Because what the right wing are doing, they want to solidify the Supreme Court. They want to solidify the federal judiciary.

They want to solidify and take control of all of these states. They want to ram through an agenda and they want to be able to control power for the next 100 years because their whole point is when the demographic shift is complete, they still want to be running this.

And this is the last thing folks should do. That is sitting out and trying to escape what these folks are trying to put in the place. Because what they want to put in the place, if you are 30 years old, they want to have it where you have no shot at changing this system for the rest of your life and for your children. Yeah, that's right, Roland. I'll say this as a person who's been fighting and who's been working kind of nonstop for so many years

and knowing so many of my peers and knowing people around the country. I hear you. I do hear them when they say, hey, we've been fighting, and this is a lot of my mental health, and I need to stress. I encourage them to do something right now. This is we've got maybe what, 40 to 45 days left until the next inauguration, until the next president uses, maybe use some of those days, like you said, to take a respite, to take to take a quick beat. But if you think we can stop now, did Donald Trump ever let up? Donald Trump spent the last four years continuously fighting, not backing down, not backing down from the insurrection, denying the election. And while he's out there blustering,

his infrastructure is continuing to be built. And I think you've made a real critical point. This is not just at the federal level, just at the presidential and Supreme Court, which we all pay attention to. This goes down to state houses. This goes down to the governor's races, the mayor's races, the state legislature, the state senates, where so many different, as you can see by the Supreme Court kicking back so many different, see these different powers back to the states, is where the real next battle will be fought. And as of now, we don't have dogs in water hoses in fear of necessarily getting beat. I mean, hear Donald Trump say it, he's going to definitely unleash the military on protesters. And we may, unfortunately, get back to that place. So I think this is a period I'm kind of hoping a lot of this is online bluster, people just a little bit upset, people a little bit worn out.

And we're going to take that respite, going to take some vacation time, going to take just a little bit of time to just get our minds right. But if we take our foot off the gas even just for a little bit over these next six months to a year, the next two years, we're going to look up and we won't be able to, I think, recover. I just see, I just see and hear, Nola, this helplessness. And I was at the vice president's holiday brunch yesterday. And I said this to a couple of people. If you know you didn't leave everything on the field, then maybe you should look in the mirror. Because I think part of this issue here is that we have a lot of people who complain but don't work. People who are expecting others to do more, but they aren't doing anything themselves. And that's what cannot happen. We need folk who are putting in the work.

And you don't have your next national election until 2026. But folk had better understand that when we lose a mayor's position in Baton Rouge, you lose power. You lose access to the budget. You lose control of the resources. And in places where black people alone could make the difference. If I sit here and, let's see here.

When I look at that election. And look at the numbers. And look who showed up, when you talk about 35% turnout, 34%, and when I know that, again, if 50% of African Americans who were eligible voters in Baton Rouge had voted, Sharon gets reelected. Just black people. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1,

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. So, my position, Nola, over the next two years, four years, when somebody starts whining and complaining to me about something, I'm going to ask them a real question. Did you vote?

If they said yes, who did you vote for? If they tell me, oh, no, I didn't vote, I'm going to say, it's on you. At some point, we got to let folk know that I don't want to hear you whining and complaining if you did nothing about the problem. Right. I definitely hear that message loud and clear. And as you're talking, I'm thinking about my students who I have very frank conversations with when they wonder about what what have we left behind for them. But, you know, more to the point, I I had posted something in my story and you had shared it, Roland, when I talked about those of us who were out there who left it on the line. And I truly mean this from the bottom of my heart. You were one of the most hardest working people out there on the campaign trail.

I mean, you the point where I would joke and say, like, clearly he has a clone because that's the only way that I can understand how you could have been in so many places with your cameras ready to go in the black spaces, talking to black people. But what I will say as a very proud part of the 92 percent talking to a lot of sisters, we are tired, but it's not so much being tired about not wanting to fight. We're tired of business as usual. And that's the thing. It has to be a Kennedy moment. And what I mean by that is it has to be a moment that invigorates the party in such a way that they are going to want to vote. It's going to have to be an extreme sort of pivot. It's going to have to be an extreme sort of pivot. It's going to have to be a Kennedy moment. I mean, Black folks who were not voting before that,

or the few Black folks that could vote, even if they didn't, they got out there and they made sure that Kennedy won, even if they couldn't vote legally, right? It has to be a moment. It has to be a person. It has to be a team that people are going to want to be excited for at the top of the ticket. And I take all your points about not just what's happening federally, but also at the state and city level. And then another thing is to to my earlier point about how many in this in this country is very clear that they want conflict, that they want violence, that they want war. We have to, something that we do not want to do, we have to be uncomfortable for a little while. We have to get comfortable with the discomfort of maybe having to think about different ways, you know, to get messaging through,

try to figure out different ways how to teach kids civics in a way that they get excited about. We have to organize in a way where our ancestors marched for months to make their point about being able to just sit at the front of the bus. They got uncomfortable. We are too comfortable. So it cannot be business as usual. It has to be an energizing moment to where people actually buy into what the party is selling. And we have to also get uncomfortable. That's a tall order in two years, four years. It's a tall order. And it will not be filled by doing business as usual. I'm a Congo.

You know, I think one of the things that, look, you're going to have the Democrats elect a new chair. And there should be some hardcore demands made by black women and black men of all the candidates and making sure. No, no, no, no. These things have to happen. This is where you begin to say, no, no, we ain't going to play this game. The New York Times dropped the story of the weekend of what black staffers in Philadelphia just went rogue, creating their own plan trying to reach black voters.

They had an awful rapport with the campaign. We know what the spending was. We know how atrocious it was. This is where we say no, no, no. Hell no. Y'all about to deal with some issues right now and put them on notice and say, to Noah's point,

ain't going to be business as usual. Oh, these four firms that $600 million went through for the advertising, not one of those firms should be even involved in the next presidential election. So again, this is where you put folks on notice by saying, yeah, we're not going to phone call, we're not going to phone back, we're not going to do all that damn work if you're going to keep sending the same millions and billions to these white strategists who refuse to listen and target black people.

Ain't going to happen. Well, absolutely. You know, today I spoke at the Kunta Kinte Alex Haley Memorial Statue of celebration 25 years in Annapolis, Maryland, and the First Lady Dawn Moore of Maryland, was there speaking. And she reminded us that Wes Moore is the only Black governor in the country right now. And so I'm looking at what's happening here in Maryland, where I'm living. I'm looking at, you know, what we've produced as it relates to, you know, the senator and also Brooks and the like.

And we have to take the examples of, you know, people like Governor Moore and also Brooks and across the other countries, so many other examples that you brought up, Roland, like the one you just said, these guys are making their own plan. And we have to multiply it tenfold. You know, Westmore's only, Governor Moore's only 46, right? We have to continue to fight our own plans, continue to build on our own communities. And there are so many examples like that across the country that, you know, better than anybody else, Roland. And so you have the ability to educate people on our successes and failures. You know that the rise of people like Representative Crockett and the like, we have the ability to mobilize ourselves. And if we don't do it now, like all of you all just said, if we don't do it now, it can be 50, 60 years or more before we can really get back to the type of power

we were on the road to getting. My students after the election, similar to Nolan, it was like a rocket had hit them or something, the level of anger and frustration, but the sadness that they had. But I told them, look, you can be as sad as you want, but if you come back in the spring and you can't tell me who your state senators are, who your city councilors are, who the dog catcher is, and when these elections are happening and don't know what a school board meeting is,

you haven't made some conscious decisions about companies you're not going to support anymore because they're pro-Trump. I was just running down the list of different things you can do. Then I was like, you roll them, like, don't talk to me because you continue to be part of the problem. You are a slacktivist.

You're not serious in making real change. And until you get out there and actually do something significant in your spaces, especially locally, then it's only going to get worse for you. And that's a charge we have to continue to give our young people and in our Black spaces and who are in black political spaces. We need to continue to challenge the Democratic Party, but continue to build on our own and be prepared to do this without them if we have to. Absolutely. And so, folks, we won't be giving in here. We won't be kissing up to the likes of Glenn Beck in the far right.

That shit ain't happening. We're going to keep the pressure on, demanding change. And so let me thank Cameron, Nola, and Omokongo as well. Folks, don't forget, we're going to be here today, tomorrow, and Wednesday covering the Global Hope Forum. We're going to be live all day tomorrow as well.

You can see the alternate stream that we have going, so be sure to check that out. And so don't forget, support the work that we do by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. You, of course, can give us via Cash App by using the QR code from Stripe. You can see it right there. You can also send your check and money over to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 2003-710196. PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered0-0-3-7-daz-0-1-9-6 PayPal R. Martin Unfiltered

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tomorrow right here on the Black Star Network. Holla! Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch! A real revolutionary right now. Thank you for being the voice of Black America. All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going.

The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scared. It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeballs home. You dig?